Day 1 – Osaka

So after boarding a plane from the Gold Coast where a fellow traveller snapped like 10 photos because the camera was on continuous mode (while claiming he didn’t think it worked, it just vibrated a lot), we were off to Kansai International Airport. The flight was Jetstar’s JQ19 with rather comfortable seats for a budget airline.

Jetstar!

Slept through most of the flight, probably about 6 hours of it until enjoying a nice chicken wrap and Asahi beer (expensive though at $15 all up). There was a rather nice skyline view as the sun began to set as well.

Beautiful sunset above the clouds

Landing in Kansai was an easy experience with plenty of English signs to lead us where we needed to go.

This way for ArrivalsTowards the exitWelcome to Kansai

There was a short shuttle train trip to get out of the airport and through customs/immigration where we then headed to the JR train station to collect our JR passes and book a seat for the trip to Tokyo the next day, unfortunately we’re stuck in the smoking carriage as the train is full, hopefully it’s not too bad.

Kansai Station

I forgot to take a picture of the JR pass, was expecting a techy kinda plastic card, but it’s just a nice folded cardboard kinda thing. Plenty of vending machines around, and I decided to buy something, ended up being a coffee, had no idea what it was looking at it. Quite nice, but wasn’t really after a coffee at that time.

Cold Coffee drink

After an hour trip to our stop, Shinimamiya (which I’m still having trouble pronouncing) we wandered the streets to find our hostel. Was a bit hard because when we printed the directions, it didn’t include the Japanese characters making the directions a bit empty, but in the end we made it to Hotel Mikado. Place was rather warm inside and the rooms were actually quite small (I’ll take a picture tomorrow), but the inclusion of a hairbrush, towels, toothbrush, etc was surprising considering the tiny cost of $20ea for the night.

After dropping our stuff of we headed to eat, the hostel recommended this Chinese place nearby and the noodles there were rather good, not too badly priced either, with my bowl costing 680 Yen. No idea what it actually is, but it had a variety of veges, some seafood and meat in a rather thick sauce.

Some noodle dish$8 in Yen, doesn't look like much at all

Post dinner we walked around the area finding this nice little dessert joint called ‘Petit Young squared’ with a charismatic old woman running the place, we found it hard to avoid purchasing something from her. I settled for a simple ice cream while the others went for a crepe.

Old lady running a dessert storePetit Young Squared

We also walked into a 100 yen shop which was a bit deceiving seeing as everything was 105 yen.

Flet's 100 Yen Shop

Ended up buy some random things, not too sure what everything is supposed to be. The chip-like things in the middle were rather nice and the candy was rather ordinary, nothing too unique. The Chelsea thing had ‘Yoghurt Scotch’ written on it and had a interesting taste, kinda nice but kinda not. We’re yet to try the chocolate but Gavin said it’d be good.

Random snacks

Bought myself a pair of gloves here as well, not bad for 105 Yen, or a little over a dollar.

We also ventured into a Lawson Station which was some type of convenience store where we bought some water and some alcohol to try out. Kirin Strong, Kiring Strong Zero and a Pink Squash, none of them were very tasty in my opinion and the Kirin’s were bitter with a hint of lemon, not really something I enjoyed. They were cheap though at 148 Yen, equating to less than $2. Not bad for 8% alcohol content.

Some alcohol

Anyways, that’s the first night here and the plan for the trip is going to be:

Land in Osaka

Tokyo

Kyoto

Korea

Osaka

Nagoya

Kurashiki, Okayama and Naoshima Island

Hiroshima and Miyajima

Kobe

Back to Osaka and back to Sydney by midday on the 9th of December

Looks like it’s going to be a very tiring trip with minimal sleep to ensure we have the maximum amount of time available for travelling. Also think we’ll be hitting the clubs tomorrow night so you probably won’t get another post for another couple of days.

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Welcome

ntranced represents a 27 year old's life, his experiences and his passion.
At the moment that represents electronic music, automotive, travel, food and photography.

You'll find random recipes as I attempt to be a master chef, photos of where I've been and events I've shot. Progress of my car as I make it my own, adventures and mischief away from home and favourite tunes and upcoming/past events.